About Me

This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Army Senior Warrant Officer
Russton B. Kramer, a 20-year Green Beret, has learned that if you want
to improve your chances to survive, it's best to personally make
modifications to the Army's primary rifle — the M4 carbine.

Warrant
Officer Kramer has been dropped into some of the most ferocious battles
in the war on terrorism, from hunting Islamists in the mountains of
northern Iraq to disrupting Taliban opium dealers in dusty southern
Afghanistan. He was awarded the Silver Star for his bravery in Operation
Viking Hammer to crush the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam in Iraq.

The
warrant officer said he and fellow Special Forces soldiers have a trick
to maintain the M4A1 — the commando version: They break the rules and
buy off-the-shelf triggers and other components and overhaul the weapon
themselves.

"The reliability is not there," Warrant Officer Kramer
said of the standard-issue model. "I would prefer to use something
else. If I could grab something else, I would."

Documents obtained
by The Washington Times show the Pentagon was warned before the
Afghanistan and Iraq wars that the iterations of the M4 carbine were
flawed and might jam or fail, especially in the harsh desert conditions
that both wars inflicted.

U.S. Special Operations Command in 2001
issued a damning private report that said the M4A1 was fundamentally
flawed because the gun failed when called on to unleash rapid firing.

In
2002, an internal report from the Army's Picatinny Arsenal in New
Jersey said the M4A1 was prone to overheating and "catastrophic barrel
failure," according to a copy obtained by The Times.

The test
findings also carried ramifications for the regular Army. By 2002,
soldiers were carrying thousands of the conventional, light-barrel M4,
of which the service ultimately would buy nearly 500,000 and send them
into long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The M4, at times, has been
called upon to perform the same kind of rapid fire as the M4A1.

Colt
Defense LLC of Hartford, Conn., which lost exclusive M4 design rights
in 2009, has steadfastly defended the rifle through years of
controversy. The Army contract went to another manufacturer last year.

Courage In America strives to locate news articles that may interest readers. However, while we include stories from sources which we believe to be reliable and credible, we do not write the articles nor do we establish that they are correct. We accept no responsibility for the accuracy or reliability of information provided here and encourage readers to do their own research.